Cinque Terre

I had the most amazing weekend with my good friend Sarah in the town of Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre.  We arrived by plane to Genoa on Friday as a meeting point.  We grabbed a bite to eat and had a few glasses of wine to cheers our get together in a little cafe near the train station in Genoa.  We took a 2 hour train ride to Riomaggiore.  The ride consisted of a breathtaking view of the sea on one side, and on the other side was views of towns, vineyards, and mountains.

We arrived into Riomaggiore, and we headed straight to our hotel location.  Sarah found Appartamenti e Camere Edi online, and we decided to just go for it.  You never know what you are going to get because pictures just don't always tell the truth.  Anyways, we checked in and Edi said, "Follow me, I have a nice apartment in the port."  Yes, we started walking right down to the water.  He walked us right to our apartment which had a view of the harbor, sunset, and the town.

View from the room

Sunset from the room

View of Port from room

After we got settled into the apartment, we immediately got into our swimsuits and headed straight to the beach.  The beach was very rocky.  We tried our best not to look ridiculous trying to get into and out of the water.  That was a fail.  We pretty much crawled into the water on all fours.  After our swim, we got cleaned up and headed to dinner.  We ate at Enoteca Dau Cila, and it was quite a popular place because of its view.  We ate dinner inside because reservations were needed in order to eat outside.  We enjoyed a nice bottle of white wine from the area, and we ate mussels, clams, and tuna for dinner.  It was to die for!  The food was just wonderful.  After dinner, we headed to a bar where they served "big" mojitos.  While our drinks were being made, we made friends with some people from New Zealand.  We joined them for a few drinks, then called it a night.

New Zealand friend, Sarah, and me

Sarah and me

We woke up early Saturday morning to get a start on the day.  Sarah and I grabbed some fruit and water in town, and then we headed to the train station.  We took the train to Corniglia, so we could hike the trail to Monterosso.  There are many trails along Cinque Terre that go between all the towns, but some have been closed due to rock falls and dangerous parts.  The hike was pretty intense.  I am officially no longer a fan of hiking.  The stairs pretty much killed me.  I also began to not feel so good halfway through the hike (heat + sun + getting land legs = not feeling so good).  A midpoint was the town of Vernazza.  There we had lunch and walked through the town.  Sarah and I then took a break from one another.  After lunch she continued to hike, and I took the train to Monterosso.  We met up again in the town for some gelato and a little walk.  Then we took a boat back to Riomaggiore.  The views were absolutely picturesque.  It is amazing to see towns in the middle of a mountain on cliffs overlooking the sea with buildings of so many colors.

After a full day out in Cinque Terre, we made it back to Riomaggiore.  Sarah headed to the beach, and I had a wonderful siesta.  I woke up feeling a million times better, and instead of going to a different town we decided to stay in Riomaggiore again for the evening.  We ate at a trattoria next to the train station called Trattoria Via Dell'Amore.  It looked a little rough from the outside, but the food was amazing.  I ate ravioli and Sarah had a pesto dish.  After dinner, we headed to Bar Centrale for some gelato and some glasses of wine.  We met a few Italians who were passing through the town, so we had a short conversation because of the language barrier... I really need to work on my Italian!  After Bar Centrale, we headed to the "big" mojito place again.  We had more conversations with Italians, but again the language barrier was a little rough.  Although conversations with the Italians didn't go too well, we ended up talking with a few guys from England.  You would think that we would meet a lot of Italians, but Cinque Terre is a big tourist place.  We ended up meeting more people from New Zealand, Canada, and England than from Italy.

The next day we spent the whole day on the beach.  We ended up meeting our British guy friends again, so we joined them for lunch at Il Pescato Cucinato.  We had some fried fish and beer in some shade along the main street.  Afterwards we headed back to the beach for the rest of the day.  Throughout our swims during the weekend, we managed to wreak havoc on our bodies.  Our feet and legs have cuts from the rocks.  I had my second encounter with a jellyfish.  It was not pleasant as I have a clear battle wound in which the jellyfish won.  After soaking my jellyfish sting in the salt water, it was  time for my afternoon siesta again.   For dinner, we headed back to Enoteca Dau Cila for dinner (same place as the first night).  We had the best view of the boats at the port because we were smart to make a reservation.  We even had a show of the local fisherman taking their boats out of the water because a storm was coming in.  After dinner we enjoyed some gelato and the view of the water.  We turned in early, so we could get up to catch a 7:30 am train back to Genoa.  From Genoa, we took a flight to London.

Dinner!

Lobster, Sarah, and Dinner!

Fisherman putting the boats away